Vigilante 8: Third and Final Strike
by Anguirus111
Summary: Beyond time and space, lies power beyond imagination and the markings of destiny...
1. Intro

A/N: No there was never a third Vigilante 8 game except for the remake of the first game. I felt the duology deserved to be a trilogy and I've just taken my best guess as to what the events of a third game in the series might contain. Also, as a slight spoiler, I've incorporated characters from Activision's Interstate series which was a PC game series that basically took place in the same 'world' as Vigilante 8.

Following the aftermath of the auto wars event known as _Second Offense_, the Headquarters for the dreaded Oil Monopoly Alliance Regime was utterly annihilated in a nuclear blast. The event had ripple effects throughout the world as OMAR had had a virtual stranglehold on the oil supply and other energy reserves across the planet and used that fact to force governments across the world to bow to their demands. Some governments were then turned into totalitarian regimes with the OMAR Board as their new rulers while other governments simply collapsed into anarchy when denied fuel supplies.

Only one country managed to resist OMAR's control and not collapse and that was the United States of America. By adopting new energy sources as soon as OMAR conquered the Middle East and OPEC in the early 1970s, they managed to last longer with the supplies they had. As a result, OMAR launched two failed attempts to try and bring the United States to its knees. The first event happened in 1977 and was an event called _First Assault_ where mercenaries from the newly formed _Coyote Cartel_ equipped with heavily armed automobiles attacked key locations throughout the United States. Their efforts were stopped by the actions of a few courageous individuals calling themselves _The Vigilantes_. This invasion sent alarming ripples throughout the United States and managed to stop the internal strife currently plaguing the country and managed to unite the country back into some semblance of normalcy.

OMAR, however, would not be denied in causing the collapse of the only threat to their rule. By 2019, they had bided their time waiting patiently for an opportunity to cause the United States' collapse. And an opportunity did appear in the form of a CIA Black Ops Project called _ChronoWerx_. ChronoWerx had created a group of time capsules that allowed an individual and a limited amount of matter to journey to any destination throughout the timestream. OMAR quickly realized that alterations to the timeline could be possible and immediately stole three of the capsules to transport three operatives and three vehicles equipped with advanced weaponry to the year 1979. The auto wars that subsequently erupted across the entire United States between the factions known as the Vigilantes, the Coyotes from the future, and a third party called the _Drifters_ looking to exploit the situation caused by the clashes between the first two groups became known as _Second Offense_. The clash between the Vigilantes and future Coyotes was complicated by the contemporary OMAR's actions in sending their Coyotes to defeat the futuristic Coyotes whom they felt were wrongly meddling in their affairs.

Because of the contemporary OMAR's actions, the Coyotes from the future turned their attention on them and a battle erupted at their headquarters between the futuristic Coyotes, the contemporary Coyotes, and the Vigilantes which ended with the previously mentioned event when OMAR's Headquarters was mysteriously vaporized off the face of the planet taking both groups of Coyotes with it. With OMAR's passing, the world found itself entering into an era free of outside corporate influence for the first time in nearly eight years. It was an uncertain time for many of them, but the governments that still existed remained confident they could rebuild.

The Vigilantes who participated in either one or both of the remaining auto wars began to move on with their lives now fully confident that OMAR would not be bothering them any longer. For Convoy and his wife Houston, they reopened their trucking business and thanks to dropping fuel and operation costs, business was booming. They continued sponsoring the All-Star Trio Stunt Show Spectacular that was drawing great attendance numbers throughout the south and met up with them when they could.

John Torque finally caught Nina Loco after she sold off her large cache of Site 4 weaponry to an external buyer only to blow it up before it was ever used. Knowing that whomever Nina had sold the weapons to would likely be out for revenge even if Nina was locked up in jail, John did the responsible thing and instead took her south of the border. There he put her on parole of sorts by having her do community service while he found work as a science teacher at a local college. As they spent more time together and really got to know each other, the two grew closer and closer.

Convoy's niece, Sheila, graduated from college in record time with a degree in criminology and had immediately enrolled to be an FBI Agent where she was accepted. After passing through the FBI training at Quantico, she was put to task on stopping armalite gangs from springing up in the southwest. While doing so, she also began her own investigation into what had become of Molo, a member of the Coyote Cartel who was roughly her own age and had disappeared without a trace following the nuclear inferno that had engulfed OMAR's Headquarters. Rumors also placed him in the American Southwest and she vowed to find him.

As for Chassey Blue and R. Chase, they both returned to the FBI and CIA respectively. The two were then immediately moved into a newly formed cooperative investigative unit to try and uncover why the Oil Monopoly Alliance Regime Facility had suddenly gone nuclear for no discernable reason. After a few months of investigation using satellite imagery and even wearing anti-radiation suits had gone and investigated the remains of the base, the two hadn't reached any worthwhile conclusions to report back. The only thing they had to go on was a cryptic series of OMAR reports that Slick Clyde had amassed before his trip through the temporal vortex that he had handed over to them; reports which they never revealed to the US Government that they had until they reached more conclusive results on what they were about. So instead they'd been assigned to keeping tabs on various energy companies around the world that had sprung up in OMAR's absence. The fear was that one of them might try to become the next OMAR and so they needed to be watched carefully.

Unfortunately for Chassey, one company that began making some troubling business decisions was Hexagon Petroleum which was owned by her father Red Blue. After his rival OMAR's demise, he began acquiring various random assets of their organization with no rhyme or reason behind his decisions. The Federal Trade Commission was naturally suspicious, but couldn't officially pin anything on him and so they had requested Chassey and Chase to go and meet with him. Chassey hadn't been particularly happy about it since she and her father were never on the best of terms but orders were orders. After all, she knew her father well and his primary concern was always about his company and ensuring it would survive unto eternity. If becoming the next Oil Monopoly Regime was his way of seeing his company live on; she knew he would do it.

1981, Anchorage, Alaska: "I just hope he realizes the potential consequences of his actions," noted Chase as he and Chassey were sitting in the lobby of the hotel they were spending the night at before speaking with Red the next day about their suspicions.

"He knows," said Chassey dismissively as she looked over the reports from the FTC. "I just wish we had something more concrete to go on besides a hunch."

"Unfortunately, that's just how things go when it comes to economics," Chase pointed out. "You can't really pin something on somebody until after it's already happened and consequences result because that's how you know something went wrong. It was the same in 2019."

Chassey yawned and nodded her head in agreement. She didn't even need Chase's references to the future; OMAR was all the proof she needed of his statement. While most of the organization's creation was a mystery, that they had exploited the war in the Middle East for oil for their own gain proved that someone had been asleep behind the wheel in watching over them.

"What do you think he's up to?" asked Chassey curious for Chase's opinion. When the two had first met, Chassey had instantly had a dislike for the CIA Agent, but over the past two years of getting to better know each other, they'd become good friends.

"If I knew I wouldn't be here waiting to talk to the guy, I'd be arresting him," Chase remarked lightly. "I don't know. He's clearly got a plan because he's deliberate in what he's gobbling up but…I don't know what the endgame could be. Some assets are strengthening his company and others just aren't doing anything right now."

Chassey leaned back in her chair and took a gulp of her soda and then narrowed her eyes in thought.

"Gotten any further with Operation: Third and Final Warning?" she asked next in reference to the mysterious OMAR operation Slick had given them the details on.

"Just bits and pieces," Chase replied. "If I find anything more conclusive I'll let you know. In the meantime you'd better get some sleep because no offense, but tomorrow will probably be pretty draining for you."

Chassey sighed. "Agreed. Good night."

The FBI Agent got up and collected her things and then left as Chase was left behind at the table. He watched her go and then made sure she was gone before he went back to his notes and input the data into his PDA which was basically the only piece of futuristic technology he still had on him after his car was destroyed saving the universe. He then flipped over to the Operation Third and Final Warning screen and flipped in various pieces of information that he'd just entered into the device from their reports on Hexagon Petroleum. Connections immediately sprung up between the new data and the old data and Chase clasped his hands in front of his face as he set down the PDA on the table and stared at the resulting new information.

"What are you up, Mr. Blue?" he wondered aloud and then shook his head of his concern and pocketed his PDA and collected his things and also went to sleep. Tomorrow would prove to be an interesting day.

I-40 just west of Albuquerque, New Mexico: A small armed vehicular gang had just finished ripping off a gas station and was running for their vehicles.

"Hurry up, man, she'll be here any minute!" shouted one of the members to the leader.

"Ah, you're just being paranoid. There's no way she can be everywhere at once like people say she is," the leader said dismissively.

"I dunno man, after what happened to the Crimson Guard…," the gang member remarked ominously in reference to a powerful motorcar gang that virtually disappeared overnight. The Leader waved off his concern with a non-committal grunt.

"We'll be fine. Once we're gone, there'll be nothing to track us down until we strike again," said the leader. "So calm down and…"

VROOOOMMMMMMMMM

The Leader's speech was suddenly cut off by the sound of an engine revving nearby. Squinting into the setting sun, a glint of metal caught his eye and from the sunlight came a tricked out silver Vertigo coming straight at them.

"It's her!" shouted the gang member from earlier as he ran for his vehicle. The Leader shook his head in disbelief as he stood oblivious to the sky hammer mortar shells raining down from above that blew apart several of the gang's vehicles. Those that managed to take off where then immediately torn apart by interceptor missiles as the Vertigo raced past the still motionless leader and corralled the wayward gang members with the trio of tantrum guns that were hard mounted to the car's sides and top. All told the entire operation had lasted a total of only a few minutes.

Shortly thereafter, the leader was being lead to a police van by the arriving police and all he could do was look at a young woman in an aviator's jacket leaning against the side of her car staring at the gang passing by through darkened sunglasses and nonchalantly sucking on a lollipop.

"How?" he had to ask at a complete loss. The woman shrugged lightly.

"I'm that damn good," she responded frankly and then the gang was locked up and the van drove off. A moment later, the police chief walked up to her with his arms full of folders bulging with papers.

"Thanks for your assistance Agent Sheila," the man told her gratefully.

"Just doing my job," said Sheila frankly. "Is that the information I requested?"

"Yep, all the information we have on strange weather phenomena along with recent auto gangs seen patrolling this area using busses," the chief informed her as he handed her the documents. "You know it might be more helpful to you if you told us what you're looking for."

"Sorry, that's bureau business," said Sheila shutting down the man's attempt to learn more. "If I could just sign the appropriate paperwork than I'll be on my way."

"Of course," the chief relented and produced the paperwork. Sheila scanned it briefly and then signed her name and then handed it back to him.

"Going to be sticking around long?" asked the chief trying to feign innocence. Sheila could tell right away that his intentions weren't pure by asking that and he clearly still had some faint hope of wooing the attractive young woman after they met the first time only a few days ago and she'd diplomatically tried to tell him to get lost.

"Sorry, no," she said immediately. "I've got business up north. I trust I can report back to the Bureau that I no longer need to clean up your messes from now on?"

The chief suddenly became flustered at what she had said. "I-uh, yes, yes ma'am of course."

"Good, have a nice day," said Sheila her voice dripping with venom. She then got into her car and tossed the paperwork onto the passenger seat and peeled off without another word. Glad that was over with, she pulled out a map and traced her finger from where she was to an interstate in Colorado called Interstate 76. There she needed to meet a man called Taurus who had an encounter with a lone bus on a deserted stretch of road that had mysteriously vanished into thin air.

Cancun, Mexico: John Torque was sitting in the living room of his apartment working on a strange contraption when the door to the apartment opened and the love of his life, Nina Loco, walked in with several bags of groceries.

"JT, quit playing with your toys and help me with this," she complained. JT looked up and gave her a smile before he finished adjusting one more screw and then helped her bring the stuff in.

"Thanks," she said as she helped him begin putting them away and then asked the first question on her mind. "What're you working on this time for the college?"

"Oh, this isn't for the college," John told her. "It's a personal pet project of mine."

"What is it?" asked Nina as they finished putting the food away and then she sat down on the couch next to it.

"It's a temporal scanner," JT revealed as he sat down next to her. "It's based on the time travel device that Agent Chase brought with him from the future. If it works, it can scan for temporal deviations in the timestream amongst other things."

While Nina didn't understand the specifics, she did understand the gist of what he was saying. She also knew her boyfriend like the back of her hand and that there was more to this device than he was letting on.

"What are you really looking for?" she asked bluntly. "If time is being rewritten, I don't think we could do anything to notice it or stop it."

John nodded his head. Through from the look in his eyes, it was clear his mind was somewhere else. He then silently began adjusting some dials on the device as sadness seemed to cross his features. Nina could tell from the look in his eyes what it was he was really after with this device.

"You want to find your amigo," said Nina knowingly. "The one you lost dos anos ago."

John's jaw briefly clenched at that. "I lost him a lot longer ago than that. But right before he left he showed me that he was still there deep down below the anger, hatred, and rage. I owe it to him to find out where he went and if he can be brought back to us."

"And what then?" asked Nina. "What are you really hoping to accomplish by finding your friend again? I think you need to focus on that before you start spending more time building this device. Because I didn't know the Slick Clyde you knew, I only knew Lord Clyde from the future. If you're looking for forgiveness or something else along those lines, he didn't seem like the kind of man who believed in that stuff."

"I still have to try," said JT stubbornly. "We original Vigilantes like to consider ourselves a family and Slick…Slick wasn't just like my brother, he was my brother. In many ways he was like a younger version of me. And more importantly he saved my life more times than I can count. I lost my family when Sid Burn murdered them, but if I can find a way to bring Slick back then I have to take it. I know he would do the same for me."

Nina wrapped her hands around JT and then leaned her head on his shoulder comfortingly.

"Just don't sacrifice the present for the sake of the future," Nina reminded him. "That was the older Slick's mistake."

John gave Nina a brief kiss on the forehead.

"I won't," he promised and then turned so Nina could be in his arms. "So how were things today at the orphanage?"

"Oh, only if you insist, mi mejor…"

Nina began happily rattling off what she had been up to and John listened to every word as the sun finished setting behind them. As Nina fell asleep in his arms and John's eyes drooped lower and lower, he thought he caught a glimpse of an individual standing just in the corner of his eye. Looking over, JT found no one there and no sounds of footsteps were heard. The scientist quickly rationalized as sleep deprivation on his part and soon he was asleep as well listening to the peaceful sound of the waves outside.

Anchorage, Alaska: Chassey was tossing and turning in her bed trying to get comfortable so she could get some rest. Sighing, she got up and walked into the bathroom and splashed some water on her face before downing a couple of sleeping pills and looking up at her haggard face in the mirror.

"Thirty-four and I look like I'm sixty-four," she complained lightly before she barked out a laugh into the back of her hand. She was exaggerating of course, but having to deal with OMAR over the past four years had taken more out of her than she would have liked to admit. But it had been worth it, she just wished she knew what would become of her life now that they were gone. As Chassey stared into the mirror to see if it could offer up any answers, she caught a glimpse of a mysterious figure standing in the doorway to the bathroom. Tensing up, she grabbed her firearm and whipped around and aimed into the bedroom but no one was there.

"Alright you son of a bitch you made a big mistake coming in here so freeze!" shouted the FBI Agent as she leapt out into the bedroom and visually swept the area. But again no one was there.

"Damnit," said Chassey upset. Whether because someone was that good at eluding her or that she was jumping at shadows she wasn't sure. So she swept the entire room and found nothing. Scratching her head, she was about to canvass the area again when the hair on her back went straight up as an intense feeling of fear washed over her. Looking with trepidation over her shoulder, she saw the figure once more standing in the room between her and the door.

"You've got ten seconds to get down before I put you down for good!" Chassey threatened as she aimed her gun at the individual. The darkened individual just stood there completely silent in response.

"Your ten seconds are up," Chassey replied after a few moments had passed. Upon her saying that, the figure began slowly advancing on her and so she immediately fired off a shot at the individual's arm.

Nothing happened. The figure continued to advance.

Checking to make sure she hadn't missed, Chassey capped off another round at the figure this time in the leg. But once again the figure advanced without hesitation. Realizing something was very wrong here, Chassey fired off her entire magazine at the figure and again nothing happened. Her fear that she had been experiencing early now began full blown terror, but the FBI Agent refused to be a pawn to her emotions.

And then the image of the figure became clear to her as an apparition and it slowly expanded, enveloping the entire room.

"**CHASSEY…**," it growled in a guttural voice.

"AAHHHHH!" screamed Chassey in fear as she suddenly bolted upright and found herself in her bed. Looking around fearfully, she found she was entirely alone in the room as sunlight shown in from the outside indicating it was morning.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Chassey I thought I heard screaming, are you okay?" asked Chase concerned from the outside. Chassey looked around her room once again but found nothing.

"I-I'm I'm fine," Chassey replied as she bunched up the covers against her for some illusion of protection.

"You sure?" asked Chase doubtful.

"I said I'm fine!" Chassey snapped at him. "Go to breakfast and I'll be down shortly."

"Okay," said Chase backing down and the sound of footsteps leaving were heard. Chassey immediately went to the bathroom and once again splashed water over her face like she thought she'd only done a few moments earlier in what was apparently part of the dream. She then walked over to her luggage and in a secret compartment she pulled out a datebook and flipped it to a page marked 'Dreams/Nightmares of Something'. This wasn't the first time she'd had a bad dream like this, in fact they'd been going off and on since she'd visited OMAR's bombed out remains. But whereas the nightmares before had just involved a disembodied voice, now it had taken an actual form. She jotted down the date and what she had seen and then quickly scanned the other entries to see the progression of this particular recurring dream.

"I am not losing my mind," Chassey swore as she snapped the datebook shut for emphasis and looked into the room daring anyone to say differently. But there was no one there just like there hadn't been anyone there last night. But she couldn't dwell on that now; she had things to do. And so she quickly ready and met Chase downstairs for breakfast in the dining area as they discussed their strategy for interviewing Red Blue.

Denver, Colorado: Sheila was gassing up her car anxious to get a move and start her search for Taurus. She was eating an energy bar for breakfast and was mapping out her search pattern when a shadow fell over her. Looking over her shoulder, Sheila was surprised to see the enigmatic leader of a secret installation called Echo Base staring at her.

"Well, well, well," said Sheila condescendingly with a big grin on her face. "After two years I was wondering if you'd show up again. It's been awhile, Dave."

The Leader didn't bother responding to her accusation as to who he was and instead looked at her map pointedly.

"What is it you're hoping to find out there?" he asked instead. From his tone it was clear he already knew Sheila's response and so the FBI Field Agent crossed her arms.

"Why don't you tell me?" she inquired with a false smile. The Leader put his hands in his vest pockets and looked at her with a shameful expression.

"I think you're looking into things you can't possibly comprehend," the Leader told her frankly. "And I think you should just walk away now before you find yourself in a mess you and the other Vigilantes won't be able to escape from."

Sheila shook her head at that with pity in her expression. "What happened to you, Dave? What happened to the man who would willingly put his life on the line in the defense of others?"

"I'm warning you now," said the Leader leaning forward and refusing to rise to the bait. "Walk away or there will be consequences."

Sheila also leaned forward so the two were face to face.

"**Bite me**," she said simply and then grabbed her stuff and put it in the car and finished pumping her gas and driving off. The gas station attendant knew that she was from the Bureau and to charge the fuel to them.

The Leader watched her race off before he snorted lightly to himself and a mild grin appeared on his lightly bearded face.

"Same old stubborn fool," he said as he got in his nearby van and it vanished in a brilliant flash.

Portland, Oregon: Convoy was collecting his payment for safe delivery of goods to a shoe store manufacturer and then got the appropriate paperwork signed. He headed to his truck where his wife, Houston, was leafing through a supermarket tabloid.

"You know I'd like to believe the stuff in there as much as the next guy, but…," he trailed off with a chuckle as Houston gave him a dour expression at his remark.

"Well I think they may have found something worthwhile this time," she informed him and then showed him an article inside. "Does this look familiar to you?"

Convoy gave her a skeptical look before looking at the article. It was about claims of an Unidentified Flying Object spotted in a wooded area. Though the image of the craft was a little blurry, it did look nearly identical to a craft flown by a creature he'd met a couple years back. The alien hadn't deigned to give him a name, but he'd acquired a simian counterpart over the two years between the auto wars and both had nearly succeeded in killing the entire team before vanishing. Chase had done some investigating after the event was over and found the alien took to calling himself 'Y' and the monkey was a former member of the simian space program named Bobo. When the two had left the group, 'Y' had been none too pleased with them and had made some ominous remarks about what had happened in Kuwait not being the end of things before flying off in his craft. If he had returned, it meant something was clearly amiss in the world.

"I stand corrected," Convoy relented as he looked at another blurry photo showing what appeared to be 'Y' and Bobo scanning an area of ground before another photo showed them noticing the photographer and a third showing them firing laser guns at the camera.

"I think we should go find them and see what's up before they move on," Houston figured. Convoy looked at the photo once more.

"Canada?" he said as if that left a bad taste in his mouth. "That's a little far isn't it?"

"We're in Oregon and you've been thinking of making company in-roads into our neighbor to the North," Houston pointed out. "Think of it as a fact finding business trip. Only we're finding out about more than just business."

His wife always made good arguments and this was no exception. Even if it was for something he wasn't excited about in this case.

"You know, ignoring things until they've finally involved us has usually worked out well so far," the trucker pointed out as he got in the cab of his Mack Truck and his wife got in on the passenger side.

"For you, sure," Houston agreed. "But I lost you for several months before a miracle brought you back to me. I'm not going to take a chance like that ever again."

Convoy chuckled heartily at that. "And it's that fiery resolve that made me fall in love with you in the first place."

"Then you got lucky," said Houston with a loving smile on her face as Convoy pulled out of the warehouse and headed north.

2021, Tokyo, Japan: Keiko Uzumi-Clyde had just finished giving a speech to the shareholders of her resurrected company Uzumi Power that was focused entirely on green energy. The crowd had applauded heavily at her statements about wind energy, water energy, and solar energy and the cost effectiveness of using such power sources. It had allowed her company to prosper in ways it had just been beginning to when her adopted father Lord Slick Clyde, the CEO of OMAR, had taken it over with hostile force from her biological father when Keiko was only seven resulting in her biological father's disappearance.

Strange though it may have seemed to outsiders, Keiko felt no ill will to her adopted father. On the contrary she sincerely loved him and that was why she allowed herself to carry his legacy by adding his last name to her own. It was all thanks to a trip to the late 1970s with her father that she met with not only his younger self, but also his future wife and her adopted mother, Chassey Blue, who had died before she'd had a chance to meet her in the future. She learned of the good man her father had been versus the evil man he had become and so she had done the honorable thing and destroyed him and his empire once and for all. She had been none too happy about it, but she couldn't allow her father to live as the very thing he hated, a man consumed by his past that was affecting his present and future.

It was only after she'd done that task that things had gotten…bizarre. As she watched with her own eyes, the time stream reformatted around her and she found herself in a new world she didn't entirely recognize. The world looked different than it had before and where had once been the burning remains of OMAR's Headquarters instead was a lone memorial sitting in a vast crater which talked about OMAR's demise in the late 1970s for unknown reasons. The memorial was for the world that OMAR had destroyed in their rise to power.

Rushing to the nearest library, she quickly did some research and found a new history to this planet that had diverged from the 1970s and the time travel events caused by her father, herself, and the bio-bot Dallas XIII who was built around the remains of her best friend and colleague, a man named Darius. As the memorial stated, OMAR had been vaporized in a nuclear explosion after she had left for the future. The world had then grown up free of OMAR for the past several decades and that fact caused her head to spin. Especially as her memories were different from everyone else's about those events.

Looking up her personal history was even more mind boggling as her history still matched with what she remembered; that she had grown up as Lord Clyde's adopted daughter and his right hand woman in charge of OMAR, even though Slick Clyde and OMAR had both vanished in the 1970s. When she'd asked others what they made of the conflicting history reports, they just shrugged it off as it was her history and if it was wrong she should be the one to change the official reports.

Left with the choice of either going mad because of the change in history that she somehow remembered or moving on with her life while putting all of this behind her, she'd chosen the latter. So she began her lifelong dream of resurrecting her family's company called Uzumi Power and had succeeded in doing so in only two years. Things were finally looking good for the first time in a long time and Keiko felt more content than she had in years.

"Ma'am," said her secretary as she walked into her office. "Team 1 reports successfully location of priority package."

Keiko's jaw dropped at that, she'd nearly given up hope on that particular project. "Where did they finally find it?"

"In the United States," said the secretary. "They weren't any more specific than that. They sent some photos to prove their findings."

"I'll look at them immediately, but the package is to be taken to R&D immediately. They'll know what to do with it," Keiko instructed. The secretary nodded her head as she made the appropriate notes to make calls. Keiko then rushed into her office and locked the door behind her. Going to her computer, she turned it on and got into her e-mail and found the appropriate message from Team 1 and opened the file and looked at the photos.

"At last," the very young CEO stated in a hushed tone. The images greeting her were of a heavily damaged yellow and orange bio-bot that from the wear and tear apparent looked very old, something which should have been impossible given the technology to build him was very new.

"I've found you, Dallas XIII…,"

1979, Hexagon Petroleum Headquarters: Red Blue sat behind his chair amused at the conversation he was having with his daughter and the CIA Agent.

"I assure you that I am not in any position to be resurrecting OMAR," he promised. "It's not in the best interests of my company to do so."

"We're not accusing you of resurrecting OMAR, we're just trying to make sure you don't become the next OMAR," Chase clarified. Red shook his head in shame at that statement.

"Maybe things are different in the future you come from, but right now in America we have a little something called the American Dream which allows me the right to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'. Hexagon Petroleum is my life, being the boss means I have the liberty to do what I want with it, and making it thrive makes me happy," Red explained. That his business was his life and he was willing to say this aloud was no surprise to Chassey and it further emphasized the rift between them to Chase. He needed to end this conversation soon before Chassey exploded.

"But daddy you know that some of the decisions you're making in acquiring random OMAR assets don't make much sense," Chassey said coolly in response to her father's statement. Red looked at her dimly.

"I'm preparing for the future of my company," he told her. "I'm acquiring these assets to better diversify. I can't afford to only have a handful of installations in this country because someone will come after them and you and your reckless band of vigilantes will end up destroying them in the process to defend them. Not after it's already happened twice because that's bad business sense. I trust that concludes your business with me?"

Chassey's jaw clenched tightly at that but she refused to give her father the satisfaction of being upset.

"We'll be in touch Mr. Blue," she said harshly and then got up and left the room. Chase watched her go and then turned to Red.

"One last question," Chase requested as Red tipped his head at him. "Do the words 'Operation: Third and Final Warning' mean anything to you?"

A brief flicker of hesitation crossed Red's face but his features otherwise betrayed nothing.

"I believe that's a threat given to troublemakers to tell them not to continue doing what they're doing," the CEO answered.

"But does it mean anything to you, specifically?" Chase continued. Red shrugged.

"Should it?" he asked feigning curiosity. "You're from the future so you tell me."

"The future can be changed, I just hope people can change too," Chase told Red cryptically. "Goodbye Mr. Blue. If I have any further questions I'll pass them along."

Chase then got up as well and left and Red watched him go with a multitude of silent questions on his mind before letting them go for another day. Right now he had more important things to be concerned about and there was nothing Chase or Chassey could do to stop him now. He flipped on his security system and he saw Chassey leaving with Chase. Once he was satisfied they were gone, Red pulled out a single manila envelope he had received in the mail.

Cutting it open, the executive found a disc inside of it. He then turned around and got into his safe and retrieved the only device he knew capable of playing the item, called a DVD. He then powered up the device and placed the disc in it and pressed play as he retrieved the other contents of the envelope consisting of long range plans and other papers with drawings on them. He then returned his attention to the DVD player as a warning came up that this disc was for Red's eyes only. He clicked the 'ok' button on the device and a series of words popped up.

_Oil Monopoly Alliance Regime. Operation: Third and Final Warning._

The image then dissolved into an image of a man Red had met two years ago. He was called 'Eight' and he was a member of OMAR's Executive Board who had seemingly perished two years when their facility was destroyed.

"Hello again Mr. Blue," said Eight amicably. "I'm glad that we're able to continue having this one way conversation. I'm sure it's been a long couple of years for you especially since the nature of this business agreement is one way and that we've also requested that you make some odd business decisions as I'm sure your recent encounter with Chassey Blue and Agent R. Chase has proven."

This wasn't the first time in the communiqués that OMAR had reported on an event that had occurred during a time period when he possessed the disc before playing it. He still hadn't fully figured out how that was possible, but he had some ideas thanks to the existence of Agent Chase.

"Again my sincerest apologies, but business is business," Eight continued frankly. "But I do have some good news. The preparation you have been doing for us during this operation is almost complete."

That got Red's attention and he leaned forward as Eight gave him a sinister smile.

Cancun: John Torque gave Nina a kiss goodbye as he got in his Jefferson that he had bought at junkyard and refurbished it himself. Nina for her part got in her El Camino and the two parted ways. As John was too busy thinking about his class, he failed to notice a black 1969 Manta with painted yellow flames on the hood pull out of a nearby parking spot and start following him.

I-76: Sheila's Vertigo rolled past various wrecks on the interstate looking for her quarry. She was looking at her map when suddenly her proximity sensor went off on her scanning device and she was immediately surrounded by three heavily armed vehicles; a Picard Piranha, a Jefferson Sovereign, and finally a Van.

"Shut down your vehicle and get out with your hands up!" shouted a voice leaving no option for refusal.

Somewhere over Edmonton, Alberta, Canada a Luxo flying saucer streaked over the ground for parts unknown.

Cancun, Mexico: John Torque had finished dismissing his first class of the day and was putting away his things when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs of the auditorium.

"I asked earlier if there were any questions," JT began with his back turned to the individual before turning around. "If you still have one it'll have to be at office…hours…"

JT's jaw dropped at the appearance of the new arrival. It was a Caucasian man with spiky brown hair, a goatee, and a long brown trenchcoat covering his shirt and pants.

"Hello, Johnny," said Sid Burn, the original leader of the Coyote Cartel whom JT had thought died during the destruction of Site 4; complete with his signature British Accent and a malevolent smile on his face. "It's been awhile and I'm so glad to see you again…"

Hexagon Petroleum Headquarters: "Operation: Third and Final Warning is nearly ended. Prepare for Operation: Third and Final Strike," concluded Eight. The image dissolved once more to a series of lines of text.

_Oil Monopoly Alliance Regime. Operation: Third and Final Strike._

_OMAR WILL RISE AGAIN._

The First Assault was history. The Second Offense had just ended. The Third and Final Strike was about to begin._  
><em>


	2. Twists and Turns

Cancun, Mexico: John Torque continued to stare at Sid Burn who had his hands and arms outstretched as if expecting some kind of reaction.

"What's the matter, Johnny? No 'what the hell are you doing here' or 'how are you even alive'?" asked Sid mockingly. Again John said nothing but continued to stare at the individual who had once been his trusted colleague before becoming a hated mercenary.

"Well it really doesn't matter how you got here, only that you did," said JT finally with no emotion in his voice. Years ago he'd been willing to die in the line of duty to kill the man, but that had been a long four years ago and much had changed. Not that he still didn't want Sid dead or behind bars but JT had responsibilities now to Nina and the other Vigilantes and needed to stay alive.

"This place reminds of the old days back at the lab in London," Sid confessed as he walked up and looked at the beakers and other scientific equipment on the lab table. He looked through chemicals before lightly nodding his head and then turned around and leaned against the table next to JT.

"Where did things go wrong, Johnny?" asked Sid at a loss. "It was you and me and weapons the likes of which the world had never seen before. We could have had power and wealth beyond imagining."

"I could never live my life like that," JT responded frankly. "The world is already on the brink of anarchy, it doesn't need us to push it over the edge."

"Then work with me to rule it!" Sid insisted. "You know you have better ideas for how to make people cooperate in harmony than any of these so called 'leaders' that are running what's left of this world."

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely, you are proof of that," said John harshly. It was true, once Sid Burn and John Torque had created weaponry capable of being mounted on automobiles; Sid had stolen the designs and killed their colleagues, burned down the lab, and nearly killed JT in the process when he refused to join him.

"All the same, I'm again offering you the chance to join me," Sid told him. John was about to immediately respond when Sid held up his hand to stop him.

"Just think about it," Sid stated calmly and then he got up and started walking back up the stairs before he paused again and turned to look at John. "After all, I'd hate for anything to happen to Nina."

John's expression turned to a death glare as Sid chuckled.

"That's the Johnny I know," the mercenary said pleased. "You know, it's funny. I knew Nina for years and while I hoped things might blossom between us, they never did. But she knows you for only a couple of years and things take off. Oh, what a tangled web we weave."

He continued walking when John called out to him one last time, knowing the consequences of what he was about to say. "_Nina, forgive me._"

"You have to leave me something to go on for old time's sake," JT requested and in a small way pleaded, knowing that asking about Sid's plans would seal his doom like it had all those years ago when he'd questioned Sid's stealing the advanced weapon designs. Sid stopped and sighed, remembering that day as well.

"Third and Final Warning, Third and Final Strike," he told him cryptically. "Goodbye Johnny and I…I guess I always knew your answer after all. I'm sorry old friend."

Sid then pulled out a small device from his pocket with a button. He pressed it and tossed it over his shoulder and then exited the room. John leapt over the table as the device went off and the entire room went up in a fireball from the exploding device.

Elsewhere in Cancun: Nina had just finished giving a self-defense class to the children and was answering a few questions about techniques when a nun came in with a letter in her hand. Nina immediately dismissed the class to lunch and the nun gave her a smile and then handed over the letter. Nina looked at it perplexed as it had her name written on it and a date and time. Shrugging, she grabbed a glass of water and walked out into the courtyard of the building and sat down on a bench and took a drink before opening it. Inside was a single piece of paper with two typed words and two signed words.

Bombs Away-_Sid Burn_

Snapping her head up, Nina heard the signature sound of a scatter missile being launched. Looking straight up, she then saw the white telltale plume of the missile's exhaust trail before it broke apart above her head and several missiles fell towards the institution.

A moment later, the orphanage was a crater from the ensuing explosion and a green 1973 army surplus Glenn 4x4 rolled off after firing the missile.

Minnesota Federal Prison: Washed up former Coyote Member and self-professed ladies man, Boogie, was sitting in his cell once more tossing a tennis ball against the far wall and having it bounce back to him. In the past he wouldn't be bouncing a ball he'd be dancing below a sparkling disco ball to the awe of those around him…and then holding them up for cash.

But that was a long time ago. Now he was in jail, it was the 1980s, and disco was dead. All he had were shattered dreams, his orange jumpsuit, and no future. No future, because he'd been involved in two failed attempts to take over the United States and the government hadn't been too fond of that and so he'd been given life in prison with no possibility of parole.

"Time for lunch," said a guard and the jail doors were opened and Boogie got in line with the rest of the inmates and were escorted to the cafeteria. They received their normal meal with an added bonus this time, nutritious honey bars. But taped to his bar was a note.

"Get ready to be stung real good," Boogie read annoyed as he crumpled up the note and tossed it aside. "Terrific, I wonder who has got issues with me now."

He then opened up the package and was shocked as instead of a solid honey bar, a glob of honey came out getting all of his hands and then his outfit as he tried rubbing the stuff off.

"Looks like you're in a sticky situation there, Boogie," laughed one of the nearby guards. Boogie scowled to himself.

"I think I can hear the bees now," the guard continued jovially. Boogie's scowl deepened at that.

"I'm sure you do, you deaf ba-," he began when suddenly a noise filled the cafeteria.

BUUUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The loud sound of bees was heard and the doors to the cafeteria burst open as hundreds of bees flew in and began attacking everyone in the area. Chaos ensued as inmates and guards ran everywhere as they were continually stung. Boogie for his part was surrounded by bees but none of them stung him and it terrified him.

"What are you waiting for?" he pleaded as he cowered in terror. The next thing he knew the bees had bit into his clothing and were somehow carrying him out the door. Boogie squeezed his eyes shut hoping it would be over soon as the buzzing grew louder and louder…and then silence. Boogie collapsed in a heap on the ground still in the fetal position.

"If you're done playing with yourself; we have work to do," said a gravelly old voice that Boogie instantly recognized. He looked up to see a heavily bearded old beekeeper complete with straw hat, white shirt, and overalls staring at him while standing in front of a green Stag pickup with camper attached to the bed. A metal bees nest was attached to the side of the camper and the bees from earlier flew into it.

"Beezwax?" asked Boogie incredulously. "You're alive?"

"Last time I checked and just like the last time we met, I don't have time to spend dilly dallying. So let's go," Beezwax ordered as he got in his truck and sped off. Boogie watched him go wondering what he would drive when his eyes fell on a Leprechaun, a car he had driven back in the old days and with the Coyotes. He ran his hand over the smooth exterior of the car and when he got in; he found his a disco outfit on the passenger seat like what he'd used to wear.

"Whoa," he began impressed as an evil expression crossed his face. "Let's move to the groove!"

Boogie fired up the engine and sped off after his comrade.

Interstate '76: Sheila was standing in front of her car with her arms raised as two male individuals had her at gunpoint. They were the drivers of the Piranha and the van as the driver of the Jefferson Sovereign had yet to exit their vehicle.

"What are you doing on our freeway?" asked one of the individuals.

"Well it's clearly not free if you're holding me up," snorted Sheila. She was never one for tact, even in volatile situations like this. The one man who had exited the van lightly chuckled at that as the other individual from the Piranha became a little more irate.

"**What are you doing here?**" he repeated in a harsher tone. Sheila lowered his arms and crossed them as she looked at the man annoyed.

"I'm looking for a man named Taurus who also goes by the CB handle of 'Stampede'," Sheila told them. The two men shifted uneasily at that.

"What's your business with him?" asked the man from the van.

"He had an encounter with a bus a few weeks back that mysteriously vanished into thin air and I'd like to talk to him about it," she informed them. "Plus, he's an old friend of my uncle Convoy and he sent me a message to give him."

The two men again shared a look, uncertain what to do, as the door to the Jefferson opened.

"And if we knew where Taurus was, who should we tell him is asking for him?" asked the Piranha man. The FBI Agent opened her mouth to respond when a new voice cut in.

"Her name is Sheila and she used to be a lot younger and shorter but just as feisty," said an African-American man who walked between them. Sheila chuckled to herself as she held out her hand and the man slapped his into hers and pulled her into a hug.

"Been a long time, ya nut," said Taurus with a smile as they broke. "So what's this message Convoy has to send me?"

Sheila gave him a sly smile. "You owe him a dozen quarts of oil for having him bail you out at Pine Ridge."

Taurus laughed hard at that. "Well tell him that that debt is no more after he didn't bail me out at Colorado Springs."

"Well we had things to do, what with saving the world and all," Sheila commented lightly. "So can we talk?"

"Let's put the pedal to the metal," said Taurus as he walked back to his car and gave an order to the other two members of his group and they headed for their cars as well and then raced off with Sheila following behind.

FBI Bureau, Washington D.C.: "What'd you have to ask my dad after I left?" asked Chassey curious.

"Meh, just trying to see if I couldn't crack his façade and it didn't really work," complained Chase, which was pretty much the truth. Chassey nodded her head knowingly.

"Any word from Sheila?" she asked next. It had been her great pleasure to see Sheila achieve her dream in becoming an FBI Agent and be sent on missions and so she tried to keep tabs on her.

"Said she'd be off the grid for awhile," Chase responded. Sheila was a fringe member of the duo's little unit and helped them out when she could.

"Think she'll find Molo?" asked Chassey next as she flipped absently through a dossier about what other American oil companies were up to abroad.

"Maybe," said Chase noncommittally. He was lazily sitting in his chair thinking about what his next course of action would be with Red when a knock was head on their door and an agent walked in.

"Thought you'd want to see this," he informed the two as he turned on the television. The two watched a reporter in a trashed prison cafeteria reporting on what had just occurred there.

"In a strange turn of events the Minnesota Federal Prison was suddenly attacked by a massive swarm of angry bees," the reporter stated. "No one knows what attracted the bees here although speculation points to a new series of honey bars recently introduced into the prison diet. The bees left after only a few moments, but between their actions and the chaos that broke out between the guards and the inmates, the damage was already done. At the moment only one prisoner is still accounted for, a man simply named Boogie who reportedly was actually carried off by the bees. Some of our viewers may remember him as the man who…"

The agent muted the TV and turned to the two.

"Since all business involving the auto wars is your territory, command ordered me to pass this along," said the agent dropping the file the local Minnesota office had already collected on the incident. The agent then left without another word. Chassey shot a shocked look at Chase who appeared thoughtful.

"Shit," said Chassey immediately as a headache instantly came on and she held her head in her hands. "It never ends!"

"Nope," said Chase, pleased to finally have something to do. "But it's good to see some action for a change instead of all this smoke and mirrors stuff with big business."

Chassey did have to agree with that as she grabbed her coat and Chase opened the door for her.

"If there're bees involved, then that means Beezwax," began Chassey as if discussing the weather until realization hit her like a runaway train and dread fell over her. "Oh no…"

"What?" asked Chase concerned. His knowledge from the future of the first auto war was just what he'd been taught in various history classes and what files he'd dug up from the CIA on the matter. But his knowledge was clearly eclipsed by Chassey's since she'd been a primary participant in them.

"If Beezwax survived Site 4 then that means Sid Burn did too," Chassey pointed out. "And if he's alive, then JT… Oh no…"

Chassey nearly collapsed as she said that and Chase helped her stand up.

"John Torque is a survivor, you have nothing to worry about," Chase reassured her. Chassey nodded her head as her brief moment of weakness passed.

"Let's get going to Minnesota, I'll be damned if I'll let a third auto war happen," Chassey swore. Chase nodded his head and the two headed out to their vehicles. Chassey with her dependable Rattler and Chase had adopted the Clydesdale 4x4 that Slick had left Chassey as a parting gift still equipped with Slick's signature lightning rod on the side and other armaments. When Chassey had agreed to loan the vehicle to Chase, she inwardly promised herself that one day she would find a way to get it back to its rightful owner, no matter how long it took. Chassey parked her car on the trailer attached to the 4x4 and got in the Clydesdale's passenger side as Chase began the first leg of the journey west.

Interstate '76: Sheila sat at a picnic table at a trashed rest stop with Taurus, a blonde haired man named Groove Champion who had the Piranha, and a grease monkey named Skeeter who drove the van. They were enjoying a modest meal that Taurus had carefully cooked up so that they could avoid unwanted attention with any smoke from the grill.

"I heard about your work in stopping Antonio Malochio's attempt to blow up the West Texas Federal Oil Stock with that hydrogen bomb," Sheila informed the group. "I'm glad you were on top of that because we were too tied up with the Coyotes to even know what he was up to."

"Always happy to do our part," said Taurus humbly as he dished out some of the chili he'd made.

"Sorry you didn't get the recognition we did," Sheila also told them. It was true, while the Vigilantes had sort of become small time celebrities, this group were barely even a footnote in the new history books coming out.

"Ah, we're not here for the fame," said Taurus as he sat down with his bowl. "Not that you guys are either. I mean I know Convoy and fame is the last thing he wants."

"I'm also surprised that Malochio and Sid never met up at any point since OMAR both put them up to this," Sheila continued a little perplexed. Groove leaned forward at that.

"We think that a local branch of OMAR may have been behind Malochio's actions and not the main group," Groove answered. "It was likely one of the Board Members acting of their own accord or something."

"Makes sense, I believe the individuals codenamed Seven and Eight ran the North American operations. Eight sounds like the most likely one to do such a thing," Sheila figured as she shoveled in some chili.

"But that's not why you're here is it?" Taurus told her. Sheila shook her head as she used a napkin to wipe off her mouth.

"I heard you had an interesting encounter with a motor coach not too long ago," she told the trio. The others exchanged a look and nodded their heads.

"Darndest thing I ever saw," Taurus began. "We don't see a lot of traffic out here and never see busses without escorts because this is still largely a no man's land between Denver and Omaha."

"Yeah, so we figured this lone bus was lost so we drove up to it to give them directions to turn around or we'd do our best to escort it," Groove continued. "Instead it opened fire on us and after a brief chase, it vanished into thin air."

Sheila took out her notebook and began writing that information down before asking. "Do you have any idea what it was doing out here?"

"Well we found it parked by a couple of old wrecks," answered Skeeter. "Odd looking ones too because of the decay rate on the vehicles."

Sheila furrowed her brows at that in confusion. "Weird how?"

Skeeter shrugged. "It makes the wrecks seem much older than they should be."

"Can you show me?" asked Sheila next.

"Sure," said Skeeter. "But we'll have to wait until tomorrow. I'd rather not be travelling after dark."

"Works for me, I've got a lot of paperwork ahead of me," Sheila confessed as she pulled up her satchel and began pulling files out of it.

"Oh, I almost forgot to ask," said Sheila absently. "This bus didn't happen to have an oversized tail pipe did it?"

The three were surprised by that statement. "Yeah and it let off a belching smog effect that stalled us out right before the bus vanished," Taurus stated. "What's really going on Sheila?"

Sheila put down her pen and clasped her fingers in front of her face as she debated what to tell them as the FBI had told her to remain quiet on anything dealing with the Auto Wars.

"Skeeter, how do you explain the flying cars and advanced weaponry that popped up a couple of years back during the second auto wars?" asked Sheila out of the blue. Skeeter was a little taken aback by the question.

"I…well…," he began as if enthusiastic to discuss his theory and then stopped when he saw Groove's skeptical expression.

"You have to tell me, I'm with the government," said Sheila butting in. Taurus gave a nod at Skeeter who finally perked up.

"I believe that technology came from the future," he answered truthfully. Groove just shook his head in shame at that statement.

"And I can neither confirm nor deny that statement," said Sheila with a smile as Groove looked shocked at that. "Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, yes it does," said Skeeter pleased. Taurus grinned at that as he ate some of his soup soaked bread and then amused expressions broke out across the table.

"C'mon, let's leave the lady to her work," said Taurus as he picked up his bowl and stood up. The others did the same as Sheila's expression dropped to a little hint of sadness.

"I also want to say that on behalf of me, my Uncle Convoy, and Aunt Houston; we're sorry for your loss," she said next, trying to sound sympathetic, even though events as of late had beaten such thoughts out of most people's minds. Sheila was referring to Groove's older sister Jade Champion who had been killed by Antonio Malochio while investigating his affairs. The trio nodded, still sad about the events that had happened, but grateful that her sacrifice hadn't gone unnoticed by the outside world. The trio then excused themselves to leave Sheila to her work as they discussed their future plans.

Cancun, Mexico: Firefighters were battling blazes caused by the two simultaneous explosions in the city. From the wreckage of the orphanage, there had been only one survivor, a woman who had somehow survived in the courtyard as the bombs rained down around her killing everyone else in the facility. While from the college lab that had been decimated, they'd found a professor stuck under his nearly collapsed lab table. The two had been extensively questioned by the authorities, but they couldn't conclusively prove they were responsible for what had happened. Instead they'd been given a warning not to leave the city before the investigation was complete.

Naturally given the circumstances, the two were doing the exact opposite. They'd raced home only to find their home completely trashed and had pushed that thought aside as they packed up their clothes and other important belongings.

"But how could Sid have returned?" Nina asked for the umpteenth time. "You said he died in the explosion that claimed Site 4."

"And as far as we knew, he did," John told her as he collected the broken remains of his temporal scanner and put them in a box. "But the reason he went there in the first place was to try and find a device capable of time travel. If he found it before Site 4 went up, then he could've escaped to another time and we'd never have known."

Nina continued shoveling clothes into her suitcase and then checked her handy shotgun for shells as she listened to JT tell his story.

"You never thought he'd be back if that was the case?" she asked, doubtful at her boyfriend being that stupid. JT shrugged.

"If he had a time travel device, he should've made his move long before now," he answered. "After the first few months of waiting for him to show up, I gave up worrying."

"But now he's back," Nina pointed out as she lugged her suitcase outside as JT did a final check of the place and carried out his suitcase as well.

"If it took him this long then he clearly had a reason for showing up now," the scientist turned bounty hunter told her. "That's also why we're alive. It was not by luck but because he deliberately wants us to watch what he's going to do."

"And what is he up to?" asked Nina completely in the dark. JT sighed and looked at the setting sun as if might be the last he'd ever see.

"Something to do with an OMAR Operation called Operation: Third and Final Warning," he said in reference to the last piece of information Slick had given them before his death. Nina instantly perked up at that.

"OMAR?" she said with disbelief in her voice. JT held up his hand to calm her down.

"We really don't know anything yet," he reminded her. "Which is why we've got to start looking into this now…before it's too late."

"So where do we start?" asked Nina as she secured her suitcase in the bed of her couple utility vehicle, just underneath the launching apparatus for her lemming missiles. JT meanwhile tossed his suitcase into the backseat of his car as his trunk had once more been converted into a bassquake device like the early days. He'd tried to replicate the futuristic wheel o' fortune cannon given to him by Lord Clyde but had been unable to properly do so and so he'd gone back to the basics.

"There was an old OMAR regional headquarters in Mexico City," JT told her. "Rather than dispose of the place after OMAR's HQ was destroyed, they've just cordoned off the place. I think it's as good a place as any to learn what we've gotten ourselves into now."

Nina nodded her head before asking. "Should we contact the Vigilantes first?"

"If Sid's made his move against us, then they're probably going to find out soon enough," he responded dismissively. "Besides, they're strong and capable, they'll be fine."

Nina nodded and got in her car as JT did the same. The two vehicles then rolled off under the cover of darkness.

Columbus, Ohio: Chase pulled into a motel and got Chassey and him a pair of adjoining rooms and the two gave their goodnights and went to sleep. As Chassey pulled up the covers, she swore she wasn't going to have any more nightmares. As she blissfully fell asleep, the apparition from before appeared and hovered over her as if keeping guard.

Nighttime in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Convoy's truck was parked in a truck stop and Convoy and Houston sat at a table in the diner plotting out their search pattern for locating 'Y' the Alien's flying saucer. While Convoy was still skeptical about actually finding the alien's saucer, the tabloids were still reporting an alien saucer in the Edmonton area and so it was possible they'd succeed. Houston was sure of it as she stood outside collecting some things from the truck as the two had opted to sleep in the truck stop rather than in the truck as it was bitter cold outside.

She had just finished locking up the vehicle when a familiar engine noise reached her ears. Looking over, she saw a yellow Palamino with two black racing stripes pull into the station and came to a halt near one of the pumps. Even though the days when she'd driven such a vehicle weren't the happiest in her life, she did still have affection for the car. So she walked over and decided to introduce herself to the driver just to see the vehicle.

As the driver's side door opened, Houston was surprised to see a young African-American woman getting out. The woman immediately began pumping gas into the car as Houston approached.

"Nice car," she said approvingly. The woman was briefly startled before noticing the woman and nodding her head.

"I've had her for awhile now, she's a beast that won't quit," the young woman agreed nodding her head. Houston smiled as she ran a hand along the sleek lines of the hood.

"I'm Houston," said Houston introducing herself. The woman nodded and shook her hand.

"Tanyah," the woman said as Houston was a little taken aback by that.

"That used to be my name before I…changed it," the Vigilante confessed to allay Tanyah's questioning look.

"Why'd you do that?" the younger woman asked as the pump came to a halt. Evidently the tank hadn't been very empty. Houston shrugged.

"I wanted to move on with my life," she confessed. That statement wasn't entirely true as Houston had no memory of her past beyond a certain point thanks to the bionic implant OMAR had implanted in her, but it was close enough. That she even knew her first name had once been Tanyah was based on something an OMAR Executive had told her two years ago.

"Sounds good to me," Tanyah replied. "Well if you'll excuse me, I've got to pay my bill and keep on moving."

"Headed north?" asked Houston curious. Tanyah nodded.

"To Edmonton," she agreed. Houston brightened up at that.

"That's where my husband and I are headed also, maybe we'll meet up," she said hopeful. Tanyah gave her a smile.

"Could be," she said, not willing to completely dismiss the idea, but also wanting to get moving again. "Nobody knows what the future holds."

Houston nodded her head in agreement and the two said their goodbyes. As Houston walked back in, she failed to notice the 1969 yellow and black Manta and a green 1973 Glenn 4x4 pull in and park nearby. Tanyah emerged after having paid her bill and then got in her car and sped off as the two other vehicles moved off after her.

Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta Canada: The urban service area of Fort McMurray was deafly quiet as night fell heavily overhead. The town was spooked as strange lights had been seen constantly over the past few weeks soaring overhead and hovering over the oil sands during the night. The police couldn't make heads or tails of it and the federal government had written it off as hysterical nonsense. But the townspeople knew better and so they kept a constant vigil by their windows, ready to go to war if they had to with the strange invaders if the lights came any closer to town.

Over the oil sands, those lights came to a halt over an area owned and operated by the Anasazi Sandworx Company. The lights slowly descended to the ground before materializing itself into a Luxo Flying Saucer. The silver vehicle had seen some damage as evidenced by the scorch marks and craters on its surface, but it showed no signs of having problems flying as it landed smoothly.

From the vessel came two short individuals, a green alien and a monkey in a spacesuit; each carrying scanning equipment with them. The monkey fanned out across the area and shoved several staffs into the ground that had blinking lights on them before returning to the alien who was using a portable scanner to examine a soil sample.

"How are the results?" asked Bob O. apprehensively. 'Y' the Alien shook his head in shame at what he was reading.

"Conclusive and getting stronger," he said as he continued sifting through the data being collected. Bob O. nodded his head. It wasn't the answer he'd wanted, but it was what he expected to hear.

"At least we know for sure," he answered trying to sound grateful.

"That's the beauty of these oil sands, they contain several different mineral elements that tell us the history of this planet," said 'Y' with the deepest respect in that statement as he snapped his scanner shut. "And right now it's saying that shifts in both space and time are occurring all around us right now and growing more frequent and stronger in nature with each passing day. Something big is about to happen very soon."

"Yeah, but what?" asked Bob O. irate at not knowing. "I don't like all this sitting around and waiting. I want to hit something and hit it hard!"

'Y' the Alien chuckled at that. "Don't worry, we'll be bringing the heat soon enough. Best of all, we won't even have to go find it, it'll be coming here to us."

Bob O. looked quizzical at that but let it go. If they'd be able to bring the pain, he was all for it.

"Do you have any idea what is the cause for all of this?" asked Bob O. instead as he held out his arms to point out at the oil sand all around them. "What are they looking for?"

'Y' the Alien sighed as he looked out at the pristine beauty around them. He did like this planet but he just hated the dominant species that inhabited it. They'd killed members of his species, they'd nearly destroyed the universe with unrestrained time travel, and now they were looking for…

"I don't have a conclusive answer for that," 'Y' admitted. "I have a good hunch, nothing more. And if they're looking for what I think they are, then they need to die before they kill us all."

Bob O. smiled evilly at that. "That's all I needed to know."

"Then get ready because tomorrow we go to war," 'Y' promised. The two then collected the poles and got back in their ship and it blasted off into the night.

Hexagon Petroleum HQ: "This is an interesting design to say the least," said an architect standing in Red Blue's office with a model he'd whipped up. It was a memorial to the Oil Monopoly Regime and the havoc they'd wreaked across the world. The design consisted of a large stone slab on the surface and a long spiral staircase below it leading several feet underground, but to no room or anything. The stairs just reached a certain point and stopped.

"What is to go at the bottom?" the architect asked again. Red gave him a shake of his head.

"Classified," he said with a smile. "But don't worry about it, just get it built and we'll place it in the ground and finally OMAR's chapter in history will be closed."

"I guess I can't argue with that," said the architect brightening up. "It'll be ready in about a month or so for you to transport to Kuwait."

"Excellent," said Red pleased as he got up and escorted the architect from the room. "If it's not ready in a month you can take some extra time to get it up to spec. I need this monument to last for a long time so we never forget OMAR."

"Oh, it will," promised the architect as he collected his plans. Red then gave his goodbye as the architect left and then became all business as he returned to his desk and looked at his copy of the plans which indicated where the monument and descending staircase was to be placed. Red then pulled out another manila envelope that he'd received in the mail from OMAR and from it he took out a transparency with drawings on it and a header reading 'Oil Monopoly Alliance Regime Operation: Third and Final Strike' along with latitude and longitude coordinates. He laid the transparency over the architect's plans and the bottom of the stairs reached an image on the transparency labeled 'The Vault'.

A smile broke out across Red's face as he leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head and whistled to himself. There had been two auto wars already and twice he'd been on the wrong side and suffered for it. The third was imminent and now he'd finally joined the winners and he had everything to gain. He was so confident that after checking the room to make sure he was alone, he produced a baseball cap that he had also received in the envelope and put it on his head so the words on it could shine proudly.

_Hexagon Petroleum, a proud division of the Oil Monopoly Alliance Regime_.


	3. The Bumpy Road

Indianapolis, Indiana: Chassey and Chase were drinking some coffee as they had as they made a brief stop in the capital of Indiana. The two were in the city's FBI Building catching up on the latest news and were looking at the reports from Mexico on how John Torque and Nina Loco were now wanted fugitives.

"Incendiary explosives and scatter missiles, that screams Sid Burn and Loki to me," Chassey figured. Chase nodded his head in agreement.

"It also helps explain who busted Loki out two years ago," he noted as he drank some of his coffee. "Guess Sid is putting the old team back together again."

Chassey snorted at that. "Well he'll be one short since Houston will never be joining him again."

"I'm sure he'll manage," said Chase lightly, although the connotations of that remark were deadly serious. "The real question is what he's up to now that he's made his return."

"I think it's obvious, it has something do with Operation: Third and Final Warning," Chassey concluded. Chase was a little taken aback by that statement.

"What makes you say that?" he had to ask. Chassey shrugged.

"Sid doesn't work pro bono. He's a hired gun who works for whoever pays him the most," she pointed out. "When we last saw him, he was working for OMAR and now he's back and we're investigating a covert OMAR operation and he's coming after former Vigilantes. It can't be a coincidence."

"Except OMAR is gone and buried," Chase reminded her, trying to throw her off the trail of the evidence he'd uncovered that she didn't know about. "I'm guessing there's some rogue faction out there hiring him out and trying to make it seem like OMAR is behind this."

"I hope you're right," said Chassey uncertain as to whether she believed him or not. "But if OMAR sent themselves to the grave then they likely had a plan for digging themselves back out. If Sid is involved then Operation: Third and Final Warning could be that plan."

"But Sid doesn't have the resources or the capable to pull it off by himself," Chase noted. Something which was true and was also an issue troubling Chase himself. "So who is he currently working for?"

"That is the million dollar question," Chassey agreed as the two left the FBI Building. Unfortunately for Chassey, she highly suspected who Sid might be working for and she prayed she was wrong in her assumption. She got into the Clydesdale's driver's seat and fired up the vehicle and once Chase got in, she drove off northwest towards Minneapolis.

Interstate '76: Sheila was with Skeeter looking at a pair of old wrecks on the side of the road.

"Can't be," Sheila said in disbelief as she brushed some dirt off one of them showing it to be a rusted over Manta while near it was a trashed Stag Pickup with a ruined camper atop the bed. She took out her notepad and began writing down everything she observed about the vehicles while also snapping photos with her camera.

"You recognize these vehicles beyond just their make and model?" questioned Taurus a little amazed. Sheila nodded her head as she took out a screwdriver and used it to pry off the rusted over rear license plate on the Manta.

"I don't suppose you'd have some rust remover?" she asked of Skeeter. The mechanic nodded his head as he went back to his van and retrieved a large clear jar and pumped some fluid into it.

"My own potent blend," he remarked as he set it on the hood of the Manta and Sheila dropped the plate in.

"While that's working its magic, why don't you tell me what's wrong with the rate of decay on these vehicles," Sheila requested as she began poking around the camper section of the Stag.

"I could go into a lot of technical details on the rate that rust sets in along with oxidation, corrosion, you name it," Skeeter began. "But those details aren't important, basically calculating everything together these two wrecks have been here at least fifty years."

Groove was a little taken aback by that statement. The car models hadn't been around for anywhere near that amount of time and Interstate 76 had only been opened in 1975.

"While I'm sure you're right about that, I can't believe these things would've just been resting here that long, especially after they completed the interstate" said Sheila doubtful as she looked through decayed and moldy pieces of paper that she pulled from a rotting desk drawer in the camper.

"That's because they weren't," Skeeter explained as he pointed out a giant hole in the side of the camper. "They were buried up there in that hill when the construction crews were excavating the area and then blown loose by a bruiser cannon shot."

Sheila looked out at the crater in the side of a nearby hill and saw the rubble and debris leading down to the vehicles.

"Deliberately found?" she said at a loss as she narrowed her eyes in thought. "That's next to impossible if you didn't know it was already there or spent a long time looking for it."

"And that's where the mystery item comes into play," said Skeeter ominously as he led a confused Sheila outside to a tarp that had been placed on the ground. He pulled it off revealing a trashed orange and yellow humanoid machine.

"My God," said Sheila in shock as she squatted over the bio-bot. "I don't believe it."

"You know what this is too?" said Skeeter beyond words. Sheila nodded her head.

"It's Dallas XIII," she said as she poked the heavily damaged machine.

2021, Uzumi Headquarters R&D Department: Keikeo was with her scientific team looking at a monitor that was hooked up to the remains of Dallas XIII. The monitor was displaying a distorted image of Sheila looking at the camera via Dallas's sensors.

"When was this recorded?" asked Keiko. She'd never really met Sheila face to face, but even she knew of the woman who had once been the President of the United States before developing the time travel device that allowed the Second Auto Wars to occur of which her younger self had been a participant.

"Can't give you a specific date because the bio-bot's memories are a mess, but I'd say early 1980s," the lead scientist figured. "We're running the images of the other members in the recording to see if we can't further pin it down."

"What's she saying?" asked Keiko next as the image continued to fuzz and blur repeatedly. The audio was even worse off than the visuals were and so they'd muted the picture being shown to them; but they'd tied the audio feed into a voice recognizer and it was displaying what words it could decipher.

"Something about wondering what he was looking for out here," said the scientist. Keiko was confused by that statement.

"That can't be in reference to Dallas," she thought softly to herself. Sheila called over a man who had coveralls on with various tools hanging everywhere. Sheila made a couple of comments to the man who pulled out pulled out a pair of wire cutters and other devices and began working on the wiring of the droid just barely off frame. The image cleaned itself up immediately and then a series of numbers rolled across the screen. Keiko quickly jotted them down. The image then started to go dark.

"Whatever they did allowed them to manually input information into the droid but it killed the remaining battery life," the scientist remarked. "I'm impressed that they were able to do that with technology well in advance of what they were comfortable with."

Keiko was trying to make sense of the numbers when she saw Sheila shouting something at the image; a word of only two syllables.

"She's saying Malo, Milo, Melo, Mulo…," said the scientist trying to make sense of what Sheila was saying. Keiko was trying to piece it together as well when she realized what was being said and her blood went cold as the image went dark.

"Molo," she said in a hushed tone of dread. "Molo had him first."

"What was that?" asked the scientist not having heard her clearly. Keiko stood up.

"I need every scrap of information you can get out of that thing put on a portable storage device immediately," Keiko ordered as she grabbed her coat and rushed for the door. "And when you're done with that, give that that robot a proper burial with a headstone reading 'Darius'."

"Where are you going?" asked the scientist curious and a little concerned. Keiko paused briefly at the door.

"I'm going on a trip and I need to make a lot of preparations first," she answered simply and then was gone. The others watched her go and then turned to get to work. Outside, Keiko pulled out her smart phone and flipped it open and pressed the touchscreen. She walked outside where a Tsunami Motorcycle was waiting for her with its engine now running. Keiko got in and placed the phone on a slot on the dashboard and a GPS enabled map appeared with a destination route displayed. Keiko slammed on the motorbike and the vehicle roared off down the road.

1981, Interstate 76: The team had just finished burying the bio-bot in the ground and Sheila stuck a stick in the ground to mark it.

"Are you sure we couldn't study it?" Skeeter protested. "Who knows what the future could be like based on the technology in that thing."

"That's exactly why we can't study it," cut in Taurus as he led the group back to the two wrecked vehicles. "We're not mature enough to handle that technology yet. Maybe one day we will but that day isn't today."

Sheila nodded her head. "But beyond that, that robot is now serving as a message in a bottle. I just hope that the person I'm sending the message to gets it in time."

The two were now at the Manta and the now relatively cleaned up license plate. Skeeter put on a plastic glove and fished it out and put it on the hood. The license plate was a UK plate and it read simply: SD BRN. Sheila nodded her head and then sat on the hood with a thud as the whole thing squeaked in protest as she no longer had the energy to stand.

"What does it mean?" asked Groove finally speaking up as he looked at the plate. Sheila shuddered to herself.

"Trouble," she answered simply and a little ashamed as well for reasons she couldn't pin down. "Look I want to thank you for all of your help and I wish you guys only the best out here. The interstates out west can still be dangerous places and I'm glad that someone out here isn't willing to let it go to the dogs. But this is where we have to part ways, I'm sorry."

"It's okay," said Taurus putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We actually have places to be anyway. We're headed northwest to Interstate '82 to investigate some things ourselves."

"Happy trails," said Sheila sincerely. "You ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

"We won't," said Taurus with a mild grin. "You need an escort to Denver or somewhere?"

Sheila shook her head. "Sorry, no. I've got somewhere to be but it's not a place you can follow."

The others didn't know what that meant but let it go. Groove and Skeeter said their goodbyes and went back to their vehicles. Taurus then walked up to her with a smile on his face.

"Don't bite off more than you can chew," he reminded her. "And don't be afraid of asking for backup either."

"I'll keep that in mind," Sheila said nodding her head and then gave Taurus a goodbye hug. "Stay safe."

"Always," he promised and then he was gone with the rest. Sheila watched the three vehicles depart and then gave a long sigh. She walked around to the trunk of her vehicle and popped the trunk. Inside she pulled out a crate with a combination lock on it. After inputting the correct code, the box unlocked and she took out the device inside.

The device was a Chronowerx Time Machine and she lugged it around the vehicle and set it on her dashboard before closing up the trunk. The time device was one of the only pieces of futuristic technology that had survived the second auto wars and no one besides Chase and Sheila knew she had it. As her future self was Chase's former CO, he still held loyalty to her and so she'd demanded his time device after the war had ended and he'd complied and subsequently sworn himself to secrecy. Chase didn't care what she did with the device because he had no intention of returning to his own time and decided to make this point in time his new home. And so she'd held onto the device waiting for the right time to use it.

"Fifty years, huh?" she said as she picked the year 1931 and then dialed in today's month and day. She had a long road ahead of her…and all the time in the world. She hit the button and her car vanished in a brilliant flash.

A couple days later, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada: Convoy's truck pulled into the city and came to a halt at a nearby gas station. The two had made it to Edmonton the prior day and learned the flying lights had headed further north to the small town in the middle of the oil sands. And so after another several hour drive, they'd made it to the small town in the middle of nowhere. And it was clearly the right town as shown by the masses of vans and other vehicles with scanning equipment and with them were the masses of believers in extraterrestrials.

"I miss Dave because this stuff was right up his alley," Convoy admitted aloud as he watched a group of individuals dressed up in alien outfits passed by the truck.

"Wasn't he that strange person with the van a couple years back?" asked Houston curious. "Sheila seemed to think so."

"I don't know," said Convoy unsure. "Either way, he wasn't the young man I used to know."

Houston nodded her head as she pulled out a map of the area.

"I figure we might be able to scout out some of the places tonight," she began. "I just wish we knew more about the area."

Convoy was about to respond when a long black limousine pulled up next to the truck. He and Houston looked at it curious as normally limousines didn't take diesel fuel…or got their fuel from truck stops. The door to the limo opened a young woman emerged from the back with a construction worker outfit on.

"Are you Houston and Convoy of the Auto Wars?" she asked curious. The two Vigilantes shared a curious glance and then turned to her.

"Yes," said Houston tentatively. The woman broke out into a big smile and she vigorously shook their hands.

"Boy am I glad to see you two," she said with a sigh of relief. "I'm Anna Sazi and I run the Canadian Division of Anasazi Sandworx and I could really use your help in dealing with this alien menace that's interrupting our work up here."

"Um…okay," said Convoy at a loss regarding this turn of events. But his confusion was lost on the young woman who just seemed too excited to be meeting the two.

"Great! If you'll follow me, we'll go out to the oil sands and I'll show you around," said the woman getting back into her car. "Oh and don't worry about paying for the gas, it's on me. I can't wait to be working with you!"

The limousine peeled off in a cloud of smoke and Houston and Convoy were left staring at each other bewildered.

"The hell was that?" asked Convoy at a loss. Houston shrugged.

"At least she was happy to see us even knowing who we were," his wife responded. "That's better than some of the places we've been where people automatically assume the worse when former participants in the auto wars roll into town."

Convoy had to concede that point as the two got back in the cab and followed after the limousine that was waiting at the next stoplight. Although he was still no less confused.

Mexico City: "Would you hate me for the rest of my life if I turned you in for the reward?" teased JT lightly to Nina as he held a poster he'd taken from the nearby bail bonds office. The picture had her image on it and a small reward posted on it.

"Ah the old days when I could fetch a price ten times this amount," Nina said wistfully as she looked at the poster which had an outdated photo of her. "Plus I was several years younger and more naïve."

JT laughed at that as he took out a pair of binoculars and looked down at the abandoned OMAR Facility from the rooftop they were on. They place was heavily sealed off with yellow police tape everywhere and some police officers patrolling the area.

"It's been two years, what are they expecting to happen?" asked Nina ruefully. JT continued observing the building for a way to get in undetected.

"C'mon let's go," he said as he headed for the stairs to make their way back to the street level. He needed information and that base was the only place he knew to get it.

Minneapolis, Minnesota: Chase and Chassey were looking over the damaged remains of the jail cafeteria as a local FBI agent rattled off the results of the preliminary investigation.

"In short they weren't actually bees at all, rather mechanical facsimiles," said the agent as he held up a small vial with a smashed bee inside showing circuitry poking out. He handed the item over to Chase who scanned it with his PDA and read the results.

"The sure did a number on this place," Chassey agreed as she looked at the dents and damage they had wrought in such a short time. She had never faced Beezwax's bees herself, but John and Slick had had nothing but bad things to say about them.

"So is there anything more you need from us?" asked the agent.

"Any luck finding out where Boogie is right now?" asked Chase. The Agent shook his head.

"We've got patrols looking for anything suspicious but so far nothing," the Agent responded. "We'll keep you posted if we hear anything more."

"Yeah you do that," said Chasse absently as she took the vial from Chase and looked at the bee inside. The Agent handed over the dossier the team had collected and handed it to Chase and then left.

"Can you track these bees with that device?" asked Chassey as she put the damaged bee vial into her jacket pocket. Chase gave a grin as he held up his PDA which showed a line out the door.

"Let's rock and roll," he declared as Chassey finally brightened up and the two rushed out the door. But unknown to them, another mechanical bee was hovering in the corner of the cafeteria observing them and transmitting a signal to equipment located in the back of a Stag pickup truck. …A signal which was being observed very closely by a grizzled old beekeeper as he kept track of the two agents' movements.

Anasazi Sandworx Co., Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada: Convoy's truck pulled in to a halt in the giant excavation site amongst heavy equipment and other semis. The area was surprisingly devoid of many workers and those that did were spooked about something. The two Vigilantes looked around at the area and the workers with curiosity and concern as they wondered what was going on.

"Welcome to the Pit!" said Anna enthusiastically cutting into their thoughts while holding a couple of lemonades which she handed to them. "We're a small unit of Anasazi Sandworx, but we're doing some incredible work down here. Soon I hope to make this the most profitable division in the company…once we work out some small issues."

"And those would be?" asked Convoy concerned. Anna shrugged becoming a little bit more humble but still maintaining her smile.

"All startups have initial issues," she said simply as she handed the drinks over. Convoy figured she'd reveal what those were soon enough as she likely needed the two of them to deal with whatever issues those may be. The two hadn't decided if they'd help her or not, but they had nothing to lose by listening to what she had to say.

"So you run all of Anasazi Sandworx?" asked Houston as she looked around at the wide open area around them. This time Anna's smile dropped a lot lower.

"Kind of," she said meekly. "The Board mainly runs things, but I'm the majority shareholder since OMAR killed my parents who originally owned the company a few years back."

Convoy and Houston became downtrodden at having forced her to reveal a part of her past that was no doubt uncomfortable to recall. Especially as this woman was barely older than Sheila who had also had a devastating childhood as well. It really made Convoy miss his niece dearly.

"But I've been managing and seeing you two here and now is like a dream come true!" said Anna immediately perking up. "I've been a fan of yours ever since the first Auto Wars when you gave those OMAR goons a lesson they'd never forget and then you hit them again in the second Auto Wars. You're my heroes!"

"Yeah well…," began Convoy turning a shade of red at that. He wasn't a fan of hero worship. "We were just in the wrong place at the right time."

"And you're here now and that's what matters," said Anna affirmatively. "I could really use your help right now."

"Alien problems?" asked Houston pointedly as she looked at some otherworldly scorch marks pocking the oil sands in various places. Anna nodded her head affirmatively.

"From my research, I think it's the same one that gave you all trouble during the two auto wars from time to time," she told them. There was no point in denying it to the young woman.

"He calls himself 'Y' the Alien and he's an arrogant little green bastard," said Houston annoyed. "But he doesn't show up unless there's trouble…big trouble. And that's something we can't afford to ignore."

"And I can't either," Anna agreed nodding her head. "OMAR didn't come after any of our facilities during the Second Offense but during First Assault if not for you Vigilantes, we'd have lost one of our most important facilities. If you ever see John Torque or Slick Clyde, please thank him for me. But in the meantime, my company can't afford to lose another site, especially one as vital as this one. I could really use whatever help you can give me."

With that plea, Houston and Convoy knew they had no choice. They had to help this young woman as much as they could.

"We'd be happy to," Houston promised. Anna immediately hugged both of them.

"Thank you. And if you need anything at all, just let me know. Weapons, cash, connections, I've got 'em all," Anna swore. She then walked over to a nearby truck bed that had a tarp over it and she unhooked it and pulled it off revealing all sorts of weapons launchers and armament for them.

"I may be all cute and cuddly but you threaten my company and you'll see my fangs and claws," Anna swore. "That alien has just spent his last night harassing my company."

Mexico City: Against all odds, Nina had managed to use her resourcefulness to sneak herself and JT into the abandoned OMAR Facility. She hadn't had to use her tracking skills in years but she was glad she still remembered her old tricks like the back of her hand. JT felt the same way about his computer skills as he was looking through file after file in the OMAR mainframe trying to find a hint of Operation: Third and Final Warning.

Unfortunately the aging servers in the room weren't being very cooperative and all the major data OMAR relied on had supposedly gone up in flames along with their facility meaning his options were limited. He also didn't have the necessary tools to try and fix the servers as they were a mishmash of 1977 and futuristic technology that OMAR had somehow managed to cobble together to work and apparently only they knew how they did.

"You'd better make things quick because it'll only be a matter of time before they discover this place is drawing power," Nina noted as she looked out the door into the hallway looking for any sign of movement.

"I know, but I can't remote access the North American Servers which apparently are in better shape than this place," JT noted extremely frustrated. The key to connect the two servers was password encrypted and he had no clues on what to enter. Out of pure frustration he typed in his own name and pressed enter.

Abruptly all power in the room died. And then a moment later the lights in the entire building came on that were still working and then the computers fired up and large amounts of data began scrolling past them faster than the eye could see.

"What did you do?" demanded Nina as she rushed next to him. JT held out his hands innocently.

"I didn't do anything!" he insisted. Outside dogs were heard barking and confused shouts were heard from the policemen patrolling the area.

"Vamanos!" insisted Nina as she grabbed John's shoulder and was prepared to drag him from the room as he continued watching the monitor and the information being displayed.

"Wait!" he protested as the images stopped moving and two words appeared on the screen that caused a chill to run down his spine.

'Turn Around'

JT and Nina looked at each other a little terrified despite themselves and slowly turned to see a new occupant in the room who had certainly not been there just moments before. But what really caused them to feel uneasy was that they recognized who the person was.

"Hello, JT, it's been awhile," said the former Vigilante and playboy, Slick Clyde. "I was wondering when you'd finally show up here."


	4. Fractured Trails

A/N: I offer no excuses for not updating this story sooner. I actually had the majority of this chapter written back in mid-2012. I'll try and update this story more often than I have as of late.

Mexico City: "Slick, where the hell have you been all these years?" JT demanded of his former colleague. "How did you escape the time vortex?"

Slick looked at JT perplexed. "I'm sorry John, but the answers to those questions are not in my memory banks."

JT's jaw dropped at that as Nina narrowed her eyes.

"The hell is this gringo talking about?" she demanded. John for his part then picked up a nearby rotted book and tossed it at Slick and the book went right through him as the image of Slick blurred briefly before refocusing.

"A computer generated hologram," he said a little in awe at seeing such futuristic technology firsthand. Slick smiled.

"I hoped you like it," Slick responded, pleased. "But that still doesn't explain why you're here."

The sounds of dogs barking and angry policemen voices were heard getting closer and the hologram of Slick briefly turned to the doorway.

"Better make it quick JT, I can't stop them," the ex-playboy informed his old friend. JT sighed and looked at the image of his friend through weary bloodstained eyes.

"Third and Final Warning, Third and Final Strike," he said, feeling like he had finally reached a roadblock for the first time in his life. If the computer program couldn't help him, then he wasn't sure what to do next. Slick's expression turned solemn at JT's statement as he slowly nodded his head.

"You have to get to Atlanta," he told them unexpectedly. "The address will flash on the computer briefly, but you need to get there now."

The guards were even closer now as they were now entering the lone hallway to the room where four years earlier, Lord Clyde had calmly strode in and killed Three, a member of OMAR's executive board.

"That might be hard to given the circumstances," pointed out JT defeated. Slick's expression turned to the sly smile he always gave when the circumstances looked grim.

"Just because I can't stop them doesn't mean I can't distract them," he responded bemused. "Get ready to run."

"What're you going to do?" asked JT as the street address appeared on the screen and he hastily jotted down.

"What I always do when trapped," said Slick as a pair of sunglasses materialized on his face. "Lightning!"

JT's eyes widened and he turned to Nina. "Cover your eyes!"

Nina and JT did so just as all the lights fired on in the building that still work and glowed to such an intensity that the bulbs all popped and rained down glass.

"Run!" said JT as he grabbed Nina's hand and they raced out the door and past the guards who were stumbling about having been temporarily blinded and confused by the light show.

2021: Keiko Uzumi-Clyde was waiting impatiently at the bank as she waited for her safety deposit box to be brought to her. As she sat looking around for something to keep her attention occupied, she noticed a newspaper commemorating the anniversary of OMAR's collapse. Of particular interest was the monument she'd seen when the timeline had shifted over, a monument she read had been donated by Hexagon Petroleum years earlier.

"Wonder why he was the one to donate it," she said perplexed. She briefly wondered if it had anything to do with Second Offense, but then the head of the bank arrived with a pair of security officers lugging a large deposit box to the counter and so she tucked the paper away in her bag to look at later.

"Here you are," said the bank manager, pleased to be helping one of his most powerful clients. The guards opened up the box and revealed a device inside that looked like a giant radio with a thin LCD display on the top of the front side along with various dials and buttons. Emblazoned across the top were the words: Chronowerx 2019 and it was the last time travel device in existence that she was aware of.

"So what is it?" asked the bank manager completely oblivious to what he had on his hands. Keiko eyed him with mock surprise.

"Are you allowed to ask such questions?" she asked with hushed exaggeration. The bank manager chuckled nervously as he wiped his hot sweating brow with a handkerchief.

"Just curious," he reluctantly admitted. "We don't often store objects this large in our vaults since it's so expensive for customers to pay for."

Keiko pretended to giggle like an innocent little girl at that. "Oh, it's nothing, just a ham radio with an eight-track player built in that my daddy gave me before he passed," she utterly lied. She also didn't specify which father had given it to her, not that it would've mattered as in this reality Slick Clyde had died forty some odd years prior and she had no idea what had become of her biological father in the reality shift.

"Well it's very nice," said the manager approvingly. "Do you need any help taking it to your vehicle?"

"Thank you but no," said Keiko politely declining the offer. She then said her goodbyes before grabbing a hold of the handle on the device and carrying it from the room with no difficulty. Even though her stature wouldn't have seemed capable of lugging such a heavy device, she was much stronger than she looked thanks to her daily training regimen designed by her adoptive father. And it was these workouts that allowed her to place the device on the dashboard of her sedan.

"Well now that the easy part's over…," she lamented as she pulled out her notes and punched in the date and time that Sheila had had hardwired into Dallas XIII and then she shut the device off. She then toggled a switch on her weapons HUD and the wheels on the car rotated to the side and then the car lifted off into the air headed towards the nearest airfield.

1932: A brilliant flash of light lit up the area that would one day be Interstate 76 and Sheila's Vertigo appeared from out of nowhere. Opening the door, she looked around the wide open area and sighed as she looked at the world not only pre-OMAR, but also pre-World War II. The people on this world had no idea what was in store for them in the upcoming fifty years and in a way she both envied them and felt horrible that she couldn't try and alter the timeline and save millions of lives.

"_But what's important now is my future and the future of everyone after me_," Sheila declared to herself and that was what mattered. If Sid Burn and Beezwax had survived the explosion of Site 4, been catapulted into the past somehow, and then Molo found them in the past, then there's no telling what devastation the three might cause unchecked.

But the vehicles weren't here now which logically meant that they had come here at some point in the future. She was almost into her vehicle when a voice stopped her.

"Just because you think time works one way doesn't make it so," said the Leader of Echo Base as he walked up to her from out of nowhere. Sheila nearly pulled her gun on him before recognizing who he was and deciding it wasn't worth the effort.

"I thought you were going to leave my investigation alone?" Sheila asked a little annoyed. The Leader shrugged.

"For the most part, yes, but I'd rather you didn't make mistakes that would further pollute the timeline," he revealed. Sheila looked at him confused by that statement so the Leader continued.

"Time is like a river in that flows from the peaks to the lowest elevation it can reach," the Leader stated. "If you're at the farthest point out on the river from its origin and someone was, to say, stick a log into the current or even dam it up, you wouldn't notice that change right away until it reached you. The same if you or someone created a disturbance where you are in the river, the problems would affect those farther on down the line."

"So you're saying that with a temporal shift, that something may have happened in the past but not occurred yet in the present?" asked Sheila jotting down that onto her notepad.

"What I'm saying is that with each log, each dam, each trip up and down this river, you are risking destroying the river and its flow," the Leader informed her and then walked back to his vehicle. "And once the river is gone, that's it. So think about that before you do anymore time travelling."

"And how do you know that your fears are justified?" Sheila had to ask. The Leader paused briefly at that and then turned to look at her.

"Tunguska, 1908," he answered cryptically and then got in his vehicle and it vanished in a bright flash. Sheila watched him go, a little miffed, but then tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and got back in her car. She then fired up the time device to 1908 and her car vanished once more. As it left, two images materialized from seemingly out of nowhere as a wrecked stag pickup with camper and Manta became visible and rested on the side of what would one day be Interstate 76.

And then another brilliant flash lit up the area as a motor coach appeared and from it exited a young man who walked up to the twin wrecks. He ran his hand across the hood of the Manta and clenched his eyes tight as if trying to hold in his emotions that threatened to spill out at seeing the wrecks. The young man's eyes then shot open angrily before turning to intense resolve as he headed back to his bus. He was almost back to it when he noticed the tire imprints of Sheila's Vertigo. He looked at them for a few moments before a smirk crossed his face.

"Just a small town girl living in a lonely world," he quipped, amused. He then got back in his bus and it vanished as well into the light.

1981, United States/Mexico Border: In a series of tunnels hidden from prying eyes, Nina Loco drove her El Camino being followed by John Torque in his Jefferson in order to cross into the United States. They were tunnels built by OMAR several years back and had been used by Nina to initially sneak Sid Burn's team into the country during the first auto wars.

"So whatever Third and Final Warning and Third and Final Strike are, they're definitely OMAR Operations," Nina concluded.

"Yes, and I strongly suspect that Third and Final Warning is going on right now," John added. "It's preparation for the Strike, whatever form that will be."

"Not another round of the auto wars," Nina complained bitterly. "I'd have thought OMAR would've given up by now after what happened the last time."

"And maybe they have," JT confessed. "They didn't get in power by making many mistakes. When the first auto wars failed, they gave up the idea entirely. It was only with Slick's new regime in place that they tried again. Now that OMAR is gone, I can only imagine what they're up to now…so to speak."

"And that would be?" asked Nina curious. JT shrugged although she couldn't see the gesture.

"Hopefully we'll find out when we get to Atlanta," he said and then signed off as the two vehicles emerged from the tunnels and made their way across the desert towards the nearest interstate.

Unfortunately, JT realized, he already suspected he knew what OMAR and by extension Sid Burn were up to. And he prayed he was wrong.

Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada: Nighttime had fallen on the Anasazi Sandworx Co. facility and the workers had once again high-tailed it out the area in fear of the alien and his saucer. As a result, it was very cold and eerily quiet as the winds swept across the area leaving Convoy and Houston alone with their thoughts.

"Where did Ms. Sazi go?" asked Convoy curious and a little concerned. She had been with them up until the last fifteen minutes and then she'd up and vanished.

"Probably knew better than to stick around here," Houston hoped as she tugged her jacket closer around to hold off the cold. "You think he'll show up?"

"I have no doubt about that," Convoy responded as he looked over the area with a pair of binoculars.

"He probably knows we're here," Houston continued as she leaned against her Samson Tow Truck. The duo had though it wise to bring the truck along in the Livingston truck's trailer if they ran into trouble and it was proving to be a good decision.

"You said it yourself, he's arrogant," Convoy reminded her. A bright light appeared on the horizon heading towards them. "And he's not one to give false impressions or back down from a challenge."

The two ran for their vehicles and soon headed off down the embankment towards the flying saucer. Nearby, Tanyah's Palamino came to a halt on a similar embankment overlooking the drilling area and the young woman emerged from her vehicle and took out some binoculars and observed the area in silence. Above and behind her, a Glenn 4x4 and Manta came to a halt on another slope overlooking the area. The two drivers of those vehicles then looked down at the Palamino and then the other vehicles below with great interest.

Minnesota: It was very late at night as the Clydesdale with the trailer came to a halt at an undisclosed spot in the middle of nowhere.

"They were here?" asked Chassey yawning heavily as she leaned against the Clydesdale to stay upright. Chase ran his PDA over the area as he scanned the area heavily.

"Yeah, but these are the strangest readings I've ever seen," the CIA Agent confessed.

"How so?" asked Chassey curious while her eyelids continued to droop lower and lower. Chase stared at the readings oblivious to Chassey being about to nod off.

"Well for starters, the only way Beezwax could've escaped the blast that consumed Site 4 would've been by travelling through time," Chase began. "And I am detecting chroniton particles which would've completely covered his vehicle during the jump. But that's not all I'm detecting. I'm getting some weird readings I can't make sense of. It's almost as if…"

"RUN, CHASSEY, RUN!"

Chassey was instantly startled awake at the sound of the loud voice interrupting her sleep. She looked around in various directions in a semi-panic before she focused on Chase who was the only one she saw.

"What did you say?" Chassey demanded. Chase looked at her confused.

"I didn't say anything," he responded confused. "I'm not sure what these particles are."

Now Chassey was the one confused. "You didn't just tell me to run?"

Chase slowly shook his head as he shut down his PDA and put it in his pocket.

"Are you okay?" he asked, figuring this was as good a time as any to bring up his concerns over her well being. "You've seemed a little more antsy than usual as of late. Plus there was that incident at the motel a little while back…"

Chassey growled at his concern for her wellbeing. "I'm fine," she insisted. "It's just all the stress of having to deal with another round of the auto wars and that OMAR might still be alive and kicking. Once we get a better idea…"

Chassey's eyes suddenly widened and her jaw dropped as she went into shock. Chase grabbed his gun and whirled around to point at whatever it was Chassey was looking at. But he was taken aback as he didn't see anything that could be holding her attention.

"What's going on?" Chase demanded of Chassey as he fumbled back into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out his PDA once more and began scanning the area.

"I don't believe in ghosts!" shouted Chassey angrily at whatever she was looking at. "So get out of my head and leave me alone!"

"Chassey whatever you're looking at, it isn't there!" shouted Chase to her as his scans revealed nothing.

"Just go away," Chassey pleaded of the unseen entity as she held her head in pain. The image she saw was a darkened outline of an individual who lacked any discernable aside from being a male entity, although how Chassey could even tell that, she wasn't sure.

"**You have to run, Chassey**," the entity informed her once more, practical begging in a strange guttural voice. Chassey gave the entity a weird look.

"Why?" she shouted as Chase continued to look around confused before his scanner started beeping.

"**Because they're coming for you, CB**," the voice answered frankly and the female FBI Agent backed up against her car as the apparition seemed to dissipate into the cold night wind. As she watched the entity vanish, a lone tear rolled down from her eye and she touched the tear lightly and saw it glisten on her fingertips in the moonlight.

"Boy that something must've been really scary, huh?" asked Chase trying to make light of the situation as his scans continued to come up negative on anything close by, but they were detecting something farther away that he couldn't seem to get a lock on.

But as Chassey reflected on the teardrop, in her heart she knew it wasn't a tear produced out of fright, but out of deep sadness. But why she was feeling that, she couldn't tell.

"So what now?" asked Chase waving off the unknown reading and putting his scanner back into his vest pocket. Chassey looked around at the darkness surrounding them and then her expression once more returned to its razor sharp focus and she made her choice.

"We're leaving," she ordered. Chase looked at her skeptically.

"What about getting more clues or doing a preliminary sweep?" he asked, as if he she should know all that already. Chassey shook her head.

"It's late at night, we're tired, and we're setting ourselves up for a possible ambush," she responded and then headed for the Clydesdale. "You can stay if you want, but I'm going."

Chase scowled as if debating whether or not to keep arguing with her before he reluctantly followed the departing FBI Agent and got into the passengers side of the 4x4.

"I still think you're making a -,"

THOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!

A giant explosion engulfed the area where they had just been standing and arguing over whether or not to leave. The shockwave and flames rocked the side of the vehicle until Chassey reflectively threw the vehicle into gear and it raced away from the maelstrom.

"The hell was that?!" demanded Chase as he pulled out his PDA and scanned the area but came up with nothing. "This thing should've been able to detect any weapons being fired from this timeframe!"

"Not if it's from a point in time after 2019 it won't or from a future that never existed before now," Chassey replied knowingly as she slowly began leaning back in her seat while still racing down the dirt road. Chase paled at that and then looked at her even more confused at her actions.

"What're you doing?" he demanded. Chassey looked at him for a moment and then grabbed his hand and put it on the steering wheel.

"Take over, I'm heading for my Rattler," she replied as she squeezed out of the chair and into the back as the 4x4 violently shook as Chase immediately slid over and fought to regain control of the vehicle. He was about to argue with her when suddenly the radar on the vehicle began registering hostiles inbound.

"Alright, I'll ditch the trailer once you're clear," he told his departing companion. "But I think we're better off retreating from this one. We're both too exhausted to be doing our best work out there in a fight."

Another giant explosion rocked the landscape near their position and it nearly threw the Clydesdale off its wheels.

"Especially when we're at the disadvantage," Chase finished, desperately wishing he still had his Chrono Stinger and its futuristic weaponry to face whatever was out there.

"Got it," said Chassey yawning as she crawled into the back and popped open the rear window of the vehicle. An instant later she had climbed onto the trailer and was throwing off the ropes tying her car to it as it swayed back and forth trying to avoid the artillery being directed at them.

"C'mon, Chassey, we've got no more time!" shouted Chase at her. Chassey threw off the last rope and got into her Rattler and flipped on the headlights.

"Yeehaw, here I come ya hear!" she shouted and then the wheels on her car rotated down ninety degrees and the car rose up into the sky and peeled off. Chase smiled to himself despite the situation and then he pressed a button and the bolts holding the trailer dropped off and the trailer stopped rolling before a sky hammer mortar turned it to shrapnel. Chase's Clydesdale now raced across the nighttime desert for the road as Chassey had her Rattler above and behind him.

"C'mon you bastards, show yourselves," Chase growled under his breath. And then three orbs soared in glinting moonlight off of them.

"The hell are those?" asked Chase bewildered. Chassey looked at him amazed he didn't know until the reason why occurred to her.

"That's right you never grew up in the 1970s so you couldn't know," she said a little miffed before her expression turned to dread. "They're disco balls!"

"Ha, ha, ha, funky!" shouted a new voice over their radio. The disco balls began spinning rapidly and then began firing explosive flares in all directions as a Stag Pickup with camper and a Leprechaun hatchback came racing in from the full moon all weapons blazing at the two Vigilantes.

Anasazi Sandworx Factory, Fort McMurrary, Alberta, Canada: The Luxo Saucer was hovering in the air as a short green alien and a chimpanzee in a spacesuit sans helmet were collecting ground samples.

"I think we've overstayed our welcome," said the chimpanzee in perfect English while looking off into the horizon where a pair of headlights could be seen approaching. The alien sighed and then shook its head in shame before snapping the sampler in its hands shut and read the results on the LCD display.

"Well they're too late to stop us or what's coming," said 'Y' the alien as it stood up and looked at the headlights. "The zero hour approaches and this reality is going to split wide open."

"And can we do anything to stop it?" asked Bobo resigned. 'Y' the alien looked at the headlights with a contemplative expression.

"Possibly," it offered lightly before its expression turned to anger. "But until that possibility presents itself, I will destroy anything that gets in my way."

Bobo smiled malevolently at that. "All that is left is revenge."

The two creatures headed back into their saucer as it powered up and slowly lifted into the air.

Nearby: Houston and Convoy saw the craft rising up and turning to face them.

"I really didn't think he'd be very friendly towards us," Houston had to admit. Convoy scowled at what he saw in front of him.

"Damn alien's always got his own agenda," he muttered to himself and then grabbed his CB radio and thumbed it on. "Listen to me you green son of a bitch, we know something big is on the verge of happening so let us both work together to stop it!"

Weapons began deploying on the saucer as its primary weapon, the luxo cannon, began tracking them.

"I don't think he's buying it," commented Houston as she deployed her weaponry on her Livingston Tow Truck.

"Fine, we tried to be friendly so don't forget that," Convoy swore and then activated his weapons as well. Weapons deployed from his cab as well and the two vehicles rushed straight at the saucer.

After a few tense moments, their radios finally crackled to life.

"Let main engines start and the invasion begin!" shouted two voices in unison over the radio as the three vehicles opened fire on each other.

Ridge nearby: The drivers of the Manta and the Glenn 4x4 stood looking at the battle below as explosions lit up the night sky.

"I'm surprised that saucer can still fly," the Manta owner admitted. "Especially considering you crashed it awhile back."

The owner of the Glenn 4x4 gave a brief nod of acknowledgement of this statement as he continued to watch the fight below.

"Should we make our presence known?" the Glenn owner asked. The Manta owner shook their head.

"Not just yet," he decided. "Instead, why don't we let this new third party make their presence known, first?"

A third pair of headlights appeared racing towards the fight.

"Now is when it gets hot in here," the Manta owner laughed to himself, eager to see what was to come.

Louisiana: John Torque and Nina Loco pulled into Convoy's family land and his mansion. The mansion had been destroyed during the Second Auto Wars and then rebuilt as an exact facsimile of the original.

"Wow," said Nina a little impressed. She'd come from a meager background in Mexico and while she had come a long way since then, seeing such opulence still amazed her.

"Well, Convoy doesn't live here much, he's mostly on the road," JT let her know. His ancestral home may have been the home of many with a silver spoon in their mouths, but his friend chose to not be a part of that lifestyle.

"But wasn't this place once a plantation, which would mean…?" Nina said aloud before realizing what she had said and covered her mouth embarrassed. "I'm sorry mi amor."

John waved off her concerns. "We don't have time to worry about that past, all that concerns us is the future and whatever Third and Final Warning and Third and Final Strike might mean."

The two headed for the mansion bringing their stuff with for a night's stay.

"I know you know," said Nina yawning into her hand. "Or at least, I know whatever you think is going on is what's going on."

JT shrugged lightly as he took out his keys and unlocked the front door of the mansion and pushed it open and then flipped on the lights in the place.

"I think they've made horror movies in places like this," Nina had to comment as she looked at the seemingly pure oak wood interior.

JT chuckled at that. "Who needs a horror film in here when out there is so much worse."

Nina had to agree with that as the two immediately headed to the guest bedroom to get some desperately needed rest before starting out the next day for Atlanta.

"Can you trust him?" Nina would ask later that night as both got ready for bed. "Because I worked for the man he became and he still can give me nightmares."

"I know that was the man he could've become, but when push came to shove he saved us all," JT reminded her solemnly. "I have to make sure he didn't die for nothing. Whatever OMAR is up to, I won't let them succeed."

"And I won't either," Nina promised reaching out and holding his hand.

Later that night after Nina and JT were both fast asleep in bed, a light wind blew in from the open window gently moving the curtains. And then a shadow crept across the room as a strange formless body seemingly materialized out of thing air and stood watching them.

"Check…mate…,"

And then the apparition dissolved into thin air as if it had never been there at all.

Colorado, 1908: The daytime air suddenly crackled and sparked as electricity seemed to appear from nowhere and arc in no particular direction. After several moments of this, the electrical bolts converged on one spot and then a bright flash accompanied by a loud explosion rocked the landscape as a silver vehicle that had not been there before somehow managed to appear.

"What was that?" said Sheila bewildered as she emerged from her vehicle and looked at the remaining crackling energy from her trip through time. "Weird."

She looked around the rugged landscape and couldn't help but note its beauty.

WHOOOSHH….BOOOOMMMMM!

A projectile slammed into the ground nearby and exploded throwing dirt and debris everywhere. Sheila scrambled for her car as a Glenn 4x4, Golaith Half-Track, and Wapiti 4wd roared over the nearby embankment and closed in on her for the kill.

Anasazi Sandworx Factory, Fort McMurrary, Alberta, Canada: The lights and sounds of weaponry and explosions broke the nighttime silence as the Livingston Semi-Truck and Samson Tow Truck engaged in combat with the Luxo Saucer. The Samson Tow Truck was engaged in close quarters combat while the Livingston Truck was farther out. The two Vigilantes had to do this because the Luxo Cannon was inaccurate at close and long ranges and by constantly having to reacquire either target it allowed them to avoid most of its blows.

"Listen to me you alien ass, we have to help each other!" Convoy tried again on the radio to no avail. "Don't forget Kuwait! We worked together to stop reality from being sucked into oblivion," he reminded the alien in the hopes it would come to its senses. To his slight surprise, the laser cannon lessened its rate of fire and then it slowly dwindled down to nothing. And then the three vehicles came to a halt waiting in silence for something to happen. Finally the radios on the two earthbound vehicles crackled to life.

"We did save reality from being erased, that's true," the alien voice admitted. "Only now reality is going to fall apart and once more you humans are to blame for it! And I will eradicate you all to stop that from happening!"

The cannon locked onto Convoy's truck as from the bottom of the flying saucer and fired as Bobo's rebuilt Moon Trekker dropped out and raced straight at Houston with a simian scream erupting over the radios as its Collector arms began hacking and slicing at anything in front of it.

Further down the flats, a yellow and black Palamino raced along the sands headed towards the alien saucer and Vigilantes all weapons at the ready. In the driver's seat sat Tanyah with her hands gripped firmly on the wheel and a look of determination on her face.

"This is where things get interesting," said Sid Burn, pleased, from his vantage point.


End file.
